Knitting: Does not solve the world’s problems but it sure does make life more bearable.

After a lot of thought and consideration I chose Knitty’s Spring Forward socks for the Paca-peds yarn I’d recently purchased during my last trip to the Yarn Barn. Both yarn and pattern are great but IMO I should’ve listened to my gut instinct and selected a simplier pattern. The stitch pattern simply gets lost in the colorway. This isn’t going to stop me from wearing them though. The yarn keeps my feet nice and toasty plus I love the colorway.

I’ve done minimal knitting since my last post. Since last May I completed a baby blanket, a wrap and the following hats. The baby blanket will not be showed off since I did not have a chance to photograph it before gifting it away. Will say the parents-to-be were very happy with it and couldn’t get over the fact they’d received a hand knit item. I’ve yet to take decent pics of the wrap I knit last fall but as soon as I do will be blogging about it. For now I leave you with the little FOs I completed for my Blythe last September.

The hats were all experiments to see if I could knit a decent hat like others I’ve seen posted across the web. What’s nice about knitting for Blythe is that any scrap yarn amount will do. At some point I had plans to knit and sell these on Etsy but I really wasn’t too please with the FOs to consider them sellable. Oh well, my Blythe will have an assortment of head gear to wear.

All the hats were knit on dpns from the top down to get a better fit. I experimented with several increase sequences and found one or two that I really liked. For the most part though, the increases yielded a bumpy crown so I’ll have to continue my experiment.

First hat was knit with Joann’s Sensation Camelia.

I had just enough Kureyon left over from my Lady Eleanore to knit this ribbed beanie.

There was half a skein of CTH Rainbow Ribbon to knit many more hats, but for now there’s only one.

I finally found a FO I like with the CTH Potluck Worsted I bought years ago. Do have to remember to CO a few more stitches since the hat was a little to tight on the doll.

Another yarn which had been laying around for years is the FB Fashion Denim I used to knit this hat. I didn’t quite like the end product, since the texture at this scale is very distracting.

The next two hats were knit with the first yarn I ever dyed. Lion Brand Fisherman’s Wool was dyed with Kool-Aid with flavors I can’t remember. Overall I like how both hats turned out, but I think someday I’ll go back an frog the green one just a bit and reknit it. IMO the yarn is just too bulky to have it folded.

Finally, I just have to show off this lovely skein of Paca-Peds alpaca sock yarn I found at the recently relocated Yarn Barn. The shop is still on McCullough St. but a lot closer to downtown and conveniently located across our family doctor’s office. Yep, no matter how bad I feel, I know I can always hop over to yarn heaven and feel so much better.

All I knit lately are socks. I confess, I used to think sock knitters were a little crazy, but after realizing the practicality and convenience of knitting socks, I think they’re on to something.

There are many reasons knitters prefer to knit socks and I won’t bore you with those details because I’m sure you’ve read them all. But I will say that as a knitter who lives in South Texas, knitting socks gives me the opportunity to knit year round. Do I need to knit sweaters? No ’cause apart from the fact that it’s only “cold” for about three months, I can get great bargains on sweaters at the end of the season, thus saving tons of $$ on yarn. Plus, I reserve my serious knitting to the winter months since it is cool enough that I can welcome the UFO’s warmth on my lap, any other time of the year and it is pure hell. Socks are small enough that they don’t have to lay on my lap and provide unnecessary heat. Hurray for socks!!

Had I never picked up knitting and found my way to knitty.com, I would never have clicked on this. Yep, one look at those disproportionate girls and I was totally taken with them. How could anyone be afraid of these cuties. Then again I wasn’t six years old when I first laid eyes on the Blythe dolls.

For the past two years I’ve been infatuated with them and I swore I’d own one someday. I’d hinted on several gift giving occasions my desire to own a Blythe, but that never materialized. This past February I decided that as a birthday present to myself, I’d take the plunge and bid on the girl of my choice. A day after my birthday, Asian Butterfly had made her way from halfway around the world to her new home.

I’ve already started knitting for her and look forward to knitting more miniature pieces. Not only will I be able to use the scraps of yarn left over from other FO, I’ll be able to claim that I knit a sweater in one evening.😉

I can honestly say Eleanor (left pair) is my first FO of this year. I started the first sock last April when Momma Monkey sponsored a knit off which I signed up for as part of team Koigu. This is as far as I got that weekend:

Sometime that year I finished the rest of the sock, but it stayed single for four seasons. I finally CO its companion last month and weaved all the loose ends sometime last week.

The yarn used to knit Eleanor is KnitPicks Bare Essential which was my dyeing project from a year ago. I really like how the colors came out and they seem to complement the pattern nicely. Needles used are size US 1 and the Eleanor is a Socktopia exclusive pattern.

The socks to the left are a mini version of my Happy Clown Socks. DD insisted she wanted socks like mine and given the amount of yarn left over from the first pair, I had no excuse not to knit them. If you look with a more critical eye, you’ll notice one toe has a whole lot more fuschia then the other. The only reason that happened was because I ran out of the Opal Feelings. A good thing I had the Opal Uni Solid to finish the socks off.

I started the Mini-Clowns in December and finished the last pair a few days ago. I love the contrasting cuff, heel and toe look, but I detest the weaving of all those loose ends. I swear, sometimes it takes me longer to weave those ends than to knit the whole thing.

Apologies for the crappy picture since it does not do the pattern justice. I started this project in August ’07 and finished knitting the body sometime in October. My intentions were to introduce a more girly color either through embroidery or applique of knitted flowers, but my motivation and creativity were very limited. Before I knew it, December was upon us and the recipient of Daphne could not wait any longer. If I had, she’d be old enough to dress her dolls with the cape.😉

Verdict: The pattern is very easy and I love the concept. I would knit this cape again but would like to introduce other stitch patterns or some colorwork to make it a more interesting piece to both knit and look at. The yarn is great to work with and felt wonderfully soft in my hands. The easy care of this yarn makes it ideal for baby wear.

But it’s been almost four months since my last post and there are a few little changes in WordPress which is making it difficult for me to post images. Now I ask, what’s the point of posting about your creations if there are no images to support your work? Not that I’ve been super productive on the knitting end, but I have managed to finish a couple of projects and have another one started.

Stash build up is minimal. The only addition to my yarn collection in the past 4 months were 3 skeins of Lion Brand’s Superwash which I found for $1.50 a piece at Big Lots. Over a month ago I visited the Yarn Barn and not only did I get the scare of my life (there were flyers everywhere announcing the store was closing April 15) but I also walked out with the most current back issues of Knitting Vogue for $0.10 each. What a deal!!!

Last week I decided to stop by the Yarn Barn again, figuring I’d find all sorts of great discounts due to the store’s upcoming closure. I was expecting to see all sorts of “Going Out of Business” signs as I approached the building but that didn’t happen. The store front’s display did look skimpy compared to the past so I figured they’d liquidated most of their inventory. Inside, the cubbys which were at one time bursting with all types of yarn were quite bare at this point. The curious thing was that prices hadn’t been slashed. Upon further investigation, the store associates revealed the shop had been bought out and would not be closing after all. That was great news, even though I didn’t find the deals of the century and have no idea where the Yarn Barn will be relocating to.